Who they are:
Signal Flow Public Relations is a boutique music media firm providing publicity and marketing services for independent musicians and music businesses. Signal Flow – named for the path an audio signal takes from source to output in sound/music recording – launched in July of 2011. The Signal Flow portfolio includes solo artists, bands, venues, recording studios, music start-ups, music tourism destinations and music non-profits.
Signal Flow’s founder and CEO is Elizabeth Cawein, a publicist, marketing/public relations strategist and music advocate (and born-and-raised Memphian).
What downtown means to them:
Downtown means innovation and creativity. It is a microcosm of all the best things about Memphis: medical innovation and our spirit of generosity at St. Jude, entrepreneurs and business innovation at StartCo., AutoZone and ServiceMaster, grit and grind at the FedEx Forum, music past and present on Beale Street.
Initiatives they’re doing to better Memphis:
Though it’s a for-profit business, I’ve always seen Signal Flow as something I’m doing to try to better our city. A central motivation for me in starting this business was keeping musicians in Memphis. I wanted – and still want – to be a reason that a musician can decide to stay in Memphis and build a career here. That desire also led to the creation of my nonprofit, Music Export Memphis. It’s an export office for Memphis music that is focused on creating opportunities for musicians to showcase outside our city, driving music tourism and talent attraction. Ultimately I’m driven by the belief that musicians want to live where there are opportunities – and given what technology has done to change the way that fanbases are built, that doesn’t necessarily mean they need to live in an industry hub city like Nashville, L.A. or New York. They can (and could and will) choose Memphis, as long as they feel that there are opportunities for them here. Creative, career-advancing, money-making, or all three. Everything MEM does is focused on creating opportunity.
How they define Pure Memphis:
Pure Memphis to me is DIY, entrepreneurial, original. We are a city of firsts, and it’s one of the reasons I’m so bullish about Memphis. From soul music to distribution to grocery stores to hotels, we’ve been innovating for a long time. We are strong-willed, bootstrapping and creative. We’re scrappy and smart and tenacious. That spirit is what flows through all of my favorite things about our city.
